rrmoderator, thank you for clarifying. My apologies of straying off topic. Also: Stoic, very informative post. Thanks.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoterrmoderatorNeo-eastern cults often use "meditation" or what can be seen as trance induction/hypnosis, to render participants more suggestible. In such an altered dissociative state they become malleable and can then be relatively easily persuaded to feel and believe almost anything. In trance an individual's perception of reality can be greatly altered, e.g. "a sense
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here's the story as "Vajra Nirvana Marga" tells it. The videos and "chronicles" documenting the sessions conducted in this ashram are quite interesting, from various perspectives.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Jumping on the 2012 bandwagon has proven to be quite a profitable marketing trick for organisations of all kinds for a number of years now. Check out this thesis for an overview of the emergence of an apocalyptical narrative concerning the year 2012 in the second half of the last century and the way in which various authors and organisations employ the apparently prophetic and historical signi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"